MP insults woman with four-letter Twitter outburst

James Butler

MP Tim Loughton has caused a stir on Twitter after swearing at one of his constituents.

Andrea Ballance from Lancing replied to a tweet by Mr Loughton about the Worthing & Adur Eco Summit, an educational event set up by the East Worthing and Shoreham MP.

Held at Davison CE High School for Girls on June 21, Mr Loughton’s tweet featured a picture of him with pupils.

Mrs Ballance ‘retweeted’ it, saying she wondered ‘how many of the children sitting here with Tim are living in poverty because of what he chose to vote on’, to which Mr Loughton called her a four-letter expletive.

The reply caused outrage on the social media site, with some users tweeting the Adur and Worthing Police Twitter account about the MP’s language.

Mr Loughton told the Herald he ‘doesn’t comment on tweets’.

Mrs Ballance, who organises the Adur Sea of Lights event, said she did not expect to be spoken to like that by an MP: “I am deeply worried about the amount of poverty in our local area. I brought attention to this issue with a tweet to Tim Loughton.

“I questioned his voting record; he seems to me to fall very hard on the poor.

“I am pretty freaked out by his response. I wasn’t expecting a member of Parliament to respond in such a derogatory and mean way.”

Mrs Ballance said she was ‘quite sure his account hasn’t been hacked’, and added that with the current political upheaval his constituents deserved better.

“In these desperately uncertain times, I do believe our MP should stand apart.

“I have worked so hard over the last few of years on the Sea of Lights with hours of unpaid volunteer community work.

“I do not expect someone we need to be a leader in our community to treat people like this.

“Even if Tim doesn’t want to be reminded that he has voted for things that I believe have increased poverty in the area, I am allowed to question it. We are allowed to question him. That’s his job as a public politician.

“It’s not the most professional moment of his career.”

It is not the first time Mr Loughton has lashed out at his critics on Twitter.